Related: How To Choose Touring Skis: Shred On

Be Honest With Yourself

What’s your local playground? How much experience do you have with ski touring in the backcountry? Answering those questions will help you choose the climbing skins that suit your needs.

For instance, I’d weigh in favour of energy-efficient mohair or hybrid skins for multi-day ski tours on mellow terrain since they provide the best glide and the least weight. For beginners, I wouldn’t bother with those, as you’ll be wasting far more energy trying to gain traction on steep sections or worse, you’ll rip them apart on rocky terrain. Simply put, be honest with yourself, answer the two key questions, and only then, start shelling out the big bucks.

Pick A Base Material (Plush)

The skin’s base material or “plush” completely changes how the skin behaves on snow, as it determines the balance between traction and glide. You’ll find below four materials currently available on the market.

Nylon: Nylon provides the best traction. It’s also the most durable at the cost of being heavier and less packable. I usually recommend nylon climbing skins to beginners as the top-tier traction will more than make up for poor uphill technique. Alternatively, nylon skins are worth picking up if your local playground is riddled with steep, bushy uptracks just like my locale, Rogers Pass.

Mohair: Mohair provides the best glide at the expense of traction. It’s less durable than nylon but is lightweight and packable. They are awesome for multi-day ski traverses on alpine terrain, where you will mostly tour up low grades. With good pathfinding and some touring experience, you can make full mohair skin work for you on steeper terrain.

Hybrid: Hybrid skins offer a blend of nylon and mohair, striking a good balance between traction and glide. I usually look for a material incorporating a 60-30 mohair/nylon blend. They are the jack-of-all-trades climbing skins, such as the Pomoca Tour Pro, my favourite due to its overall performance on snow. Not too heavy nor too light, with the perfect balance between glide and traction.

Verify The Tip & Tail Hardware Compatibility

How annoying is it to have your tail clip sliding off your skis after each stride? First world problem, right? Climbing skins come with a variety of tip loops and tail straps that secure them to your touring skis. Some hardcore alpinists even cut off the tail strap to reduce weight and bulk. While modern tip & tail hardware works well with a wide range of skis, I recommend going to your local gear store to check the fit. For instance, Black Diamond sells an assortment of tip loops compatible with a specific range of ski tips.

Some skins are designed with an attachment system that’s only compatible with skis of the same brand. Dynafit is a good example: their tip attachment is fitted to narrow slots in the ski’s tip. While lightweight, the feature makes reselling much more complicated. I prefer universal models for that reason.

Size Your Climbing Skins Accordingly

The width of the fabric before trimming is an important factor to consider if you were to choose some climbing skins. They are generally offered in 10-cm increments. I recommend buying skins as wide as the widest point along your ski (usually located at the shovel). Then, trim the extra material by following the manufacturer’s instructions, usually achieved by leaving a 2mm gap around the edge of your ski. Select a skin length that’s longer than the length of your skis. With clever sizing, you might be able to use the same skins on skis of varying lengths. Careful! The width may not match up. A skin that’s too narrow for the ski’s base makes touring on hard snow extremely difficult since the plush won’t contact the snow.

Store Your Climbing Skins Like A Pro

Climbing skins are a durable product, but like any outdoor gear, they don’t last forever. Proper storage will extend their lifetime. On the slopes, store them in your backpack, folded glue-on-glue. I personally don’t bother with the skin savers in the backcountry. Those flimsy storage sheets will flap around in the wind and fly away at a moment’s notice. I’m talking from experience here.

After skiing, I stretch them out on a drying rack. Keep them away from serious heat sources – that includes wood stoves, dryers or electric baseboards. When dry, I lay the plastic storage film over the adhesive, fold the plush in quarters, and slide the pair into its storage bag. Ideally, the adhesive never comes in contact with itself, except in the field. In the off-season, I shelve them in a cool, dry environment in an airtight storage bin with skin savers applied. True believers chuck them in the freezer to preserve the glue, but I’m quite skeptical of this practice.

Maintain Your Climbing Skins

For the most part, climbing skins are pretty much maintenance-free, unlike your ski bases. Stitches work wonders if you ever tear them, which is very easy when bushwhacking below treeline. In truly bone-chilling weather, the glue loses some of its adhesive properties. If that’s the case, you’ve got two options:

• Stuff the skins in your jacket to warm them up.
• Secure them with multiple ski straps along the length of your skis if they’re beyond repair.

Just like us, skin adhesive has a life expectancy. There comes a point where the glue won’t adhere to your bases. Fortunately, G3 and Black Diamond both sell kits to rejuvenate the glue, albeit with varying degrees of success. It’s a messy, time-consuming process. At the risk of offending the anti-consumerists out there, it’s almost cheaper to buy a fresh set of skins than attempting a re-glue when considering the opportunity cost of your labour.

Related Articles

– How To Choose Touring Skis: Shred On
– How To Choose Ski Touring Boots: Fit & Features
– How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip-In & Ski

The post How To Choose Climbing Skins For Ski Touring: Stick & Glide appeared first on The Uptrack.

Related: How To Choose Touring Skis

Finding The Perfect Fit

First and foremost, let’s get familiar with the golden rule of bootfitting. Find a boot that fits your foot. It’s that simple, lads. Boot models vary in shapes and sizes. Boots with a small arch width, called last, are better suited for skiers with long, slender feet (like me,) and boots with a large foot box volume are ideal for people with sasquatch feet. If the geometry does not agree with your lower anatomy at all, please don’t head down the painful road of mutilating your foot to make it fit. Please don’t. I’ve been there – it hurts. Mind you, there’s a wide enough range of discomfort that a professional bootfit can solve. The procedure’s goal is to secure the foot while maintaining user comfort. It involves shaping custom insoles and moulding the liner as well as the shell using foam inserts and shims. It’s worth its weight in gold. It’s also crucial to be comfortable when ski touring.

The repetitive motion of gliding two skis with your feet encased within a thick foam liner and stiff plastic shell creates the perfect environment for blisters to thrive. In this case, friction becomes both your best ally and worst enemy. On one hand, it provides uphill traction between your climbing skins and the snow surface. On the other hand, it generates heat and sweat, a catalyst for foot blisters. Bootfitting and careful foot care alleviate part of the issue by minimizing movement as well as friction between your foot and the liner.

Key Features Of Ski Touring Boots

Let’s recap the key features to keep in mind when you choose ski touring boots, as discussed in How To Get Into Ski Touring:

1. A selective walk mode which decouples the upper cuff movement from the lower shell.
2. An increased articulation of the upper cuff and lower shell allowing for a comfortable gait.
3. A grooved rubber sole to ease scrambling when gaining ridges and peaks.
4. Toe and heel pin inserts, moulded in the plastic sole, and compatible with pin and hybrid bindings
5. A lightweight touring liner with added flexibility at the ankle

Selective Walk Mode: The walk mode is the single most important part of a ski touring boot. It decouples the back-and-forth motion of the upper cuff from the lower shell by flicking a lever usually located on the spine (the back) of the boot. I always inspect the locking mechanism before deciding on a specific boot model. Too many times have I witnessed levers failing to lock the boot in “ski” mode due to ice, mechanical issues, or user abuse. No one wants to “send it” down a couloir with a wonky boot. Professional gear reviews from reputable websites such as Blister are a great way to get input on the matter.

Range of Motion (ROM): The ROM around the pivot (located near the ankle) is also important. Some models offer more range than others, easing climbs on steep slopes. For instance, the Atomic Hawx Ultra XTD 130, which balances the uphill and downhill performances, has a ROM of 41°. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Atomic Backland Carbon, focusing primarily on the uphill, has a ROM of 66°, a stark difference. Typically, the increased range of motion comes at the detriment of boot stiffness and downhill performance.

Engineered Rubber Sole: The sole of a ski touring boot connects your foot to either the binding or the ground. Its design is of extreme importance for two fundamental reasons:

• The soles provide grip when scrambling on rocks. That grip can be a matter of life or death when ski-mountaineering in gnarly terrain. Typically, Vibram rubber is used for its ideal balance of durability and grip on a wide variety of terrain. Increased grip comes at the cost of decreased longevity. Keep that in mind when shelling out 1000$ for a pair of ski touring boots.
• For some reason, the ski boot industry refuses to standardize sole designs. There are 4 standards: ISO 5355, ISO 9523, GripWalk, and WTR. Each sole standard is only compatible with a specific binding standards.

Tech Inserts: The metal/tech insert is located at the heel and toe welts. The tech binding’s pins clamp onto the inserts for a secure fit. They are required for pin (low-tech), hybrid, and SHIFT bindings. In cold weather, watch out for ice build-up in the inserts. Your binding won’t fully engage the inserts, risking a premature release and season-ending injury.

Moldable Boot Liner: The boot liner is critical to user comfort and boot performance. Ski touring liners are typically made of flexible fabric at the ankle, allowing for a more comfortable stride. Their lighter weight comes at the cost of downhill performance. The thinner foam will pack out faster than its resort skiing equivalent. Heads up: your shins may be bruised by the end of a sendy resort day. It’s also worth noting that ski touring liners rarely keep your feet warm, as they are designed for intense physical activity. Keep that in mind when using them at the resort. I recommend buying another pair designed for resort skiing from a reputable brand such as Intuition Liners.

When Is It Time To Replace Your Ski Touring Boots

I cannot emphasize further the importance of getting a fresh pair of ski touring boots every few years, depending on usage. A worn-out ski touring boot will cause the following issues:

• The plastic shell will lose stiffness over time, introducing a delay in the power transmission from the user to the ski.
• The liner’s foam (the one directly on your socks) will pack out, aggravating the above issue and causing additional blisters. Personally, I ski more than 100 days per season and change out my liners every year. If I were drowning in cash, I would swap them twice per season.
• The toe and heel welts (the ones that clip into your bindings) will wear down, creating additional compliance between the boot and the binding. Compliance will eventually lead to premature releases… think high-speed ejections. Been there, done that.
• The rubber sole (typical of ski touring boots) will wear down. You will be skating instead of walking.

Those are all problems that can be solved by either refurbishing an old pair of boots or buying a new pair.

Closing Statement

And here it is, folks. Now, you know how to choose ski touring boots from the plethora of available options. Before I send you off, let me reiterate how important it is to try the boot first before buying. Go out there and support your local bootfitting shop. While they each have their own philosophy on how to get the perfect fit, as it isn’t an exact science quite yet, they will find the right boot for you. At the end of the line, happy feet will make you happy!

Related Articles

– How To Choose Touring Skis: Shred On
– How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip In & Ski
– How To Get Into Ski Touring (Backcountry Skiing)

The post How To Choose Ski Touring Boots: Fit & Features appeared first on The Uptrack.